On May 27, 7:46*pm, bob haller wrote:
On May 27, 7:20 pm, RicodJour wrote:



On May 27, 6:11 pm, "Stormin Mormon"

wrote:
Water heater leaking. No shut off for the WH. Have to go for
the water main to the house. Why no shut off? Last people
didn't put one in. I changed the WH in Jan of 2004, but
there were 16 inches snow on the ground, and I didn't do
anything pretty. Just change the tank.

Six year warranty. And, yes, I do have the paper work.
Supposed to rain tomorrow. I'm going to see what I can do
with it tonight. May be able to get the tank out, and then
put a shutoff on the cold. So I can have water tonight.

Any polite, constructive advice, folks?

Enjoy the learning experience...?

You've been around the block more than a few times - hell, you've worn
grooves in the sidewalk! What does snow have to do with sticking a
shut-off valve on the installation? I'm assuming the water heater is
inside in snow country. It couldn't have taken more than an extra
five minutes.

R

Install 2 ball valves one on in, one on out, well away from tank.

use only for leak emergencies.

makes swapping tanks far easier, and spring for a 12 year tank, so you
dont have this trouble again soon.

the vertex tanks now get you a 30% federal tax credit

Putting a valve on the output line of a hot water heater can lead to
tank damage from water hammer. A check valve will prevent water
draining back from the rest of the house without cutting the tank off
from the various trapped pockets of air that cushion the tank from
water hammer. If you do install a check valve you will want bleeder
valves on both sides of the it. One is to admit the air when your
trying to change the water heater and the other is to drain the hot
water plumbing when you need to do so. Since the hot water plumbing
is kind of useless without the water heater I don't see the point of a
shut off on the outlet side. Without an outlet valve the tank drain
also serves as a hot water plumbing drain.

--
Tom Horne